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Nancy Bailey's Education Website

Revive, Rally and Recover Public Schools

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School Choice Deception: Florida’s Plan and Students Who Don’t Measure Up

December 16, 2018 By Nancy Bailey 7 Comments

Florida is a bellwether state. What happens to schools there will move to other states in one form or another. I would like to share a personal story of how I met school choice as a teacher in Florida and how it helped cement in me the desire to advocate for a public school system […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Betsy DeVos, charter schools, Florida, Governor-elect DeSantis, Jeb Bush, Lake Highland Preparatory School, learning disabilities, private schools, public schools, School Choice, School Privatization, vouchers

Class Size and Its Impact on Inclusion

March 3, 2018 By Nancy Bailey 9 Comments

Parents want teachers to address their child’s individual needs. Teachers want this too. They want to be able to work with and understand the students they teach. They especially want to help the students in their classes who have exceptional differences. This is difficult to do when class sizes are too large. If elementary teachers […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: 3rd Grade Retention, Florida, gifted and talented, IDEA, inclusion, lowering class size, NEPC Study, public schools, Raising Class Sizes, school reform, special education, Tennessee STAR Study

Dallas Dance: Dancing Into School Districts with Digital Devices

July 8, 2017 By Nancy Bailey 6 Comments

Resigned BCPS Superintendent Dallas Dance Takes Consulting Jobs By Joanne C. Simpson Dallas Dance could be coming to a school district near you. For a visit anyway. Dance’s new role after leaving his $287,000 annual superintendent job at Baltimore County Public Schools after June 30–at least two national consulting gigs. Both companies, MGT Consulting Group […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Baltimore County Schools, Center for Digital Education, Competency-Based Education, Dallas Dance, Digital Devices, Florida, MGT Consulting Group, Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), U.S. schools

IEPs are a Public School Thing: Let’s Not Forget That!

June 16, 2017 By Nancy Bailey 10 Comments

The Governor of Florida and other education reformers seem to have forgotten where Individual Educational Plans (IEPs) started. In this post, I’d like to remind them. The other night I watched the movie Danny Collins. It’s a loosely based true story about a burned out rock star who learns that years earlier he received a […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Danny Collins Movie, disabilities, Florida, Governor Rick Scott, inclusion, Individual Educational Plans (IEPs), Parochial Schools, private schools, privatization, Public Law 94-142, Separation of Church and State, special education, vouchers

Trip Down Memory Lane with Florida’s McKay Vouchers

May 21, 2017 By Nancy Bailey 13 Comments

One more awful bill in Florida is being used to push public schools towards privatization and poor schooling for students. Said to be 55 bills in one, HB 7069 use words like “starvation” to reference funding for public schools. Charters are called “Schools of Hope” even though Florida’s charter school record is dismal. Many Floridians […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: charter schools, Florida, HB 7069, McKay Scholarship Program for Students With disabilities, vouchers

Jeb Bush, Retention, and the Failed Ferris Wheel of School Reform

October 1, 2016 By Nancy Bailey Leave a Comment

Jeb Bush continues to ride the failed Ferris wheel of school reform. He is most likely emboldened by state politicians and business leaders, like in Michigan, subscribing to harmful 3rd grade retention policies. Also, with a fancy university invitation for him to lecture about schools and stuff. Michigan is following Florida’s lead, and that of […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: 3rd Grade Retention, dyslexia, Florida, Florida and 3rd Grade Retention, Harvard, Jeb Bush, learning disabilities, Michigan, Michigan and 3rd Grade Retention, privatization, public schools, Smaller Class Sizes, Tennessee STAR Study

Destroying Special Education through Common Core Testing and Funding Cuts

August 25, 2015 By Nancy Bailey 11 Comments

How are things going with these special education cuts after time has gone by? I’m looking at what’s happening currently. Let me know of any program cuts in your school district and I will write about them. This was originally posted August 25, 2015. ___________________________________________ Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Chicago, College and Career, Common Core, Florida, Funding Cuts, Hawaii, high-stakes testing, Individualization, Kansas, Minneapolis, New Hampshire, PARCC, Smarter Balanced Assessment, special education, Special Education Funding Cuts, states, Tennessee, Vermont

Striving Towards Local Control of Public Schools—A Proposal for Lee County and Beyond!

August 31, 2014 By Nancy Bailey 8 Comments

I would like to put forth a proposal.  What could the Lee County School Board do to make everyone happy or at least happier? I have an idea. Patricia Levesque, CEO of Tallahassee-based Foundation for Excellence in Education, Jeb Bush’s group, put out a long statement expressing “deep disappointment” in “abandoning” the tests. She mentioned […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Florida, Lee County, PDK/Gallup Poll, School Board, Solution, standardized testing, Superintendent, Task Force

Who Owns Your Schools? In Lee County, Florida They Belong to Parents and Children

August 28, 2014 By Nancy Bailey 2 Comments

For years now, I’ve wondered who owns school boards. Venture philanthropists come into cash-strapped districts and suddenly parents and citizens find their voices no longer matter. Anyone with the right amount of money, well-meaning or not, can take over how schools in that district will be run and what students will learn. Is that about […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Children, Citizens, Florida, Lee County, parents, School Board, standardized testing

Testing Kindergartners and a Rise in Disabilities: Is There A Connection?

August 19, 2014 By Nancy Bailey 11 Comments

Why are children, no matter rich or poor, showing up with more disabilities—especially ADHD? Here is USA Today telling about the report in Pediatrics. Could it be because they are being pushed harder than ever before, with less, if any, recess or breaks? Perhaps they’re tired of school, or all that Common Core stuff is […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Florida, Kindergartners, reading, testing

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